Has anyone ever manage to do this?

flumpkin

Love your post Foxglove. Some really useful and constructive ideas. I plan on auditing freezer tomorrow or Tues. Looks I may come out of this learning how to cook better ;-) Need to look for some simple meal plan ideas (although we all eat different foods currently and dd very picky!) Sorting out meals is always stressful (plus I am trying to lose weight) so hopefully some positives may come out of this

I need to get through dentist tomorrow night first and I am very anxious....about if can save/treat teeth currently causing pain and then also the cost

love and thanks flump x

zaleska3

Not sure if you've asked them, but it might be worth have=ing a chat with your dentist about part payment. Our dentist offers this and is always happy for us to just pay the consultaion fee on the day then pay what we can when we can until our next check up is due. Might be worth asking hun good luck xx

flumpkin

Thanks zaleska - my dentist is actually very good and has let me spread payment costs previously... interest free over 10 months. It just goes against what I am trying to do and is also a huge phobia of mine. Keep reminding myself to breathe... I can do this!

Newyorkdreams

Hi Flumpkin (love the name btw ) - you have received some expert advice from the folks here on MSE who really are super knowledgeable. I just wanted to chuck in my two-penneth of support for you, rather than advice as I'm currently in my second year of trying to clear a £60K debt too, and therefore very much a 'newbie' in that respect. So much of your story resonates with me on many levels.

I can totally relate to racking up £60K worth of debt - credit cards, loans, overdrafts, family loans etc - it took us about 10 years of spending like this until we had our LBM in December 2012. We had no plan whatsover how to pay it back and I completely get your posts when you said it was like it was like your money to spend with no regard for the future - 'manyana' attitude. We were also stupid, naive and immature. But you have caught it in time and it's not too late to do something about it.

We have not gone down the DMP route because we are fortunate that we earn a good salary between us (approx £70K) although this time last year it was £58K (luckily, I got a big promotion last Feb and my husband a new job 2 months ago which means we can chuck an extra £600 per month at debts) and this means we can make minimums and extra too on top. You need to do what is right for you and your family. We now buy everything with our cash or debit cards (rather than relying on credit), have built up an emergency fund of £500 (it's not much but it's a start) and set a weekly shopping budget but I am currently finding this really tough though (have posted a new thread)! I also wanted to mention that at the start of our debt busting journey, we had 7 credit cards and all were accruing interest of between 6% and 30%. The banks were refusing any 0% deals. As we started to reduce our debt, more 0% deals came our way. Slowly at first, but now we have 7 credit cards, 5 are on 0%, 1 will be paid off this month and 1 is on 5.9% life of balance - each 0% deal made me feel like dancing :j. I'm not letting you know this to blow my own trumpet, but to give you hope that it WILL start to turn around for you and that you will become debt free with a bit of time.

Good luck with your journey flump.:grouphug:

NYD x

recurrent-ostrich

Hiya, We started at not far from where you were, about £50K of debt, all credit cards and two loans. We are now at about 37K and things are improving, credit wise. We are starting to get offered increased limits on some of the lower rate cards, so we can transfer money off high rate cards. The first year/18 months was awful though. Have you put your debts into the snowball calculator? I find that a really useful tool. We have a similar level of income to you, will sub to your thread and we can keep each other going!

flumpkin

Thank you lovely MSE peeps. It helps so much knowing not alone and especially hearing that it can be done. I am not expecting it to be easy and the SOA has eally opened my eyes.

It is encouraging to hear that if we work hard and start clearing this debt we may get offered some better deals down the line.

NewYorkDreams: Did you apply for new deals or were they existing cards offering better rates and BT deals?

I have lurked on MSE for a few years knowing we have a prob and then burying head in sand (love your name Recurrent-Ostrich!) but I honestly think I REALLY have had my LBM this time. I don't want to put anything on credit again.

I am going to look for your thread now NewYorkDreams. What is your food budget? Do you have a thread too Ostrich?

Thanks again - the suport on here is brilliant and means a lot

love flump x

lizzy23

I know you don't want to do the DMP route but can i just say, we were in your position just over 12 months ago, thinking that money on cards was available cash, we did go down the DMP road, and its the best thing that we ever did, we are slowly paying off our debts properly for the first time, we haven't missed out on anything, because everything is budgeted for properly, and because we have no safety net credit cards more importantly we stick to it, and hopefully because our credit rating is trashed for a while we will think twice when credit does become available whether we need it

flumpkin

Thanks Lizzy. I am not totally against DMP just want to try to do it via snowball first. Good to hear DMP is a positive experience for you. I think I am going to try hard for 6 months and then re-evaluate to see where we are.

love flump x

flumpkin

Eeeeek Just cancelled one of my 'live' cards as they want to increase interest from 21.9 to 23.9 and with 7k balance I don't want that. Felt apprehensive as it is one of my sources of funds but had a chat with myself, reminding myself that the bits I re-use aftermaking a payment is NOT my money. The 7k on it wasn't my money either. So a bit daunting... but there is another card balance that can only go down and I stopped the interest hike.

Small steps.

Puzzcat

Hi Flump,


Just wanted to add my penny's worth... I am in a very similar situation to you and have been in debt well over 20 years..I found over the last 5 years that my debts haven't really moved and have now started a dmp.. the relief is amazing and it is the best financial move I have made. I am aware my credit rating is now shot to pieces but to actually see the debt going down is sooo worth that...


I tried consolidating.. 3 times.. and snowballing.. but never had enough spare to snowball without resorting to using the cards again.. My monthly debt payments were near on £1740...:eek:


I now pay £561, have a good budget in place and can finally live a little.. and pay off my debts.. I don't feel guilty as I have paid thousands of pounds of interest over the years and although still very early days for me.. (started nov 2013) I have had good responses from the majority of my creditors and I only have 1 at the moment that is still charging interest. But even with that one my debt is finally going down £530 a month..and I shall be able to up my payments to reduce the time as I go along.


I wish you well with snowballing and if you do wish to know more about dmp's in the future pop over to the dmp support thread.


Regards
Puzz.x